After Azkaban
by Kyo and Sinclair
Summary: Sirius is famous for his Azkaban prisonbreak, but it wasn't all his idea. Follow the only sane members of Azkaban through their imprisonment, escape, and eventual freedom. NOT SLASH!oh well maybe next time. Also, Bellatrix ain't in this! Screw her!:P


_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything at the moment, but heres to hoping!**_

_**WPB:I got bored(really, ridiculously bored) while watching the third movie for the tenth time, and it suddenly hit me that Sirius wasn't quite smart enough to figure out how to trick the Dementors all on his own. He isn't exactly a genius. So My guess is he had help. THIS IS HIS STORY!**_

X

Sirius shook slightly as he huddled against the wall of his cell, listening to the cries from the other inmates. '_I didn't do it I didn't do it I didn't do it'_ he repeated over and over in his mind. It was a mantra he had developed over the last year and a half in Azkaban. Lily had once told him Dementors fed off of a person's happy feelings and thoughts, and thus his only defense against them was the horrible and painful thoughts of Peter's betrayal and James' death. They hurt, and they slowly drew him insane, but it at least did not destroy his hope. Hopes of revenge and hopes of Harry.

Harry, his godson, had been just over a year old when James and Lily were murdered. Now he would be turning nine soon. Sirius hoped his Godson was being treated well. After years of only having him to rest his hopes on (and Remus of course, but he was so stuffy sometimes!) hearing even a rumor of him being unhappy would likely send him over he edge, a line he alone clung to in this Hell on earth.

Sirius glanced up as the shouts grew impossibly louder. That could only mean a witch or wizards was coming. It was deathly silent when the Dementors made their rounds. He watched the empty hall with blank eyes until a skinny, sneaky man flanked by two huge men drew even with his bars. "Evening Black." sneered the man.

"Is it, Hondo?" he said, idly scratching his head. Hondo was the head honcho of Azkaban, he ran pretty much everything. It sure didn't help Sirius that he hated Death Eaters so much and idolized the Minister above all others. He took a sick sort of joy out of trying to drive Sirius to insanity, depression, whatever would make him admit being a Death Eater. Of course, Sirius' innocence never once crossed his mind, the git.

"Aren't you going to ask why I'm here?"

"No, but if you insist on telling me I wouldn't stop you."

He gave him a venomous glare. "You're being moved."

"Oh really? And what would be your reasoning behind that?"

"I'm sick and tired of that smug little look on your face. So you are being placed in the cell across from…." he stopped for dramatic effect. "…..Johnny Saccharine."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. If his memory served him, which it generally did, saccharine meant something along the lines of sweet or sugary. He'd never heard of this Johnny in his life. "Should I be intimidated?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "The boy's been here for nearly five years!"

"I've been here for eight."

"Yes, you filthy Death Eater, but Saccharine is only nine years old."

"Nine!" he exclaimed in disbelief. The same age as Harry! In Azkaban? "What the hell did he do!"

"Killed his parents. The boy isn't bloody human."

"At four?"

"Yep. Aurors came in after a huge magic burst from their house. Boy was covered in blood, parents bloody thrown about the house, blood covered knives in hand, saying 'I killed them and I'll kill you too.'"

Sirius decided to reserve judgment. The ministry was evil and corrupt, not to mention they spun lies to suit their causes. No way he'd believe anything that put a four year old in Azkaban.

X

Sirius looked through the bars nervously at the still and silent lump on the uncomfortable cot. He'd been here for days, nearing a week he'd wager, and the body had yet to move. Perhaps he wasn't alive anymore. It would be particularly surprising.

"Oi!" he croaked after gathering his resolve. "Johnny!"

There was a slight movement, and a messy blonde head came into view. He couldn't see anything but his ear, but at least he knew he was alive.

"You are Johnny, right?"

Slight movement. Maybe a nod.

"I heard a little bit about you before I came."

The body tensed a bit.

"My name is Sirius Black. I have a godson about your age, I'd wager. His name is Harry."

Slowly, the boy sat up, and Sirius couldn't hold in a startled gasp. The boy's hair was matted and tangled, reaching past his shoulders, and his face was pale, sharp and angular. He was thin to the point of emaciation, but then again he didn't eat the food that was left for him. He turned extremely blank brown eyes on him, blinking slowly. Despite his expressionless face, Sirius had a feeling he was interested.

"I haven't seen him in a long time, but he's got bright green eyes and a black mop of hair. If his father was anything to go by, it'll always stick every which way. He'll probably be a prankster too."

As Sirius spoke, he started to wonder if Johnny was really listening to him. He'd been here since he was four, what were the chances that he still held even a fragment of sanity? After these thoughts ran across his mind, the convict slowly lapsed into silence. Having someone to talk to here was too much to hope for, of course. How could he have expected any different.

As Sirius sat there, looking blankly into the opposite cell, Johnny began to shift on his cot. It took a while for the convict to notice, but soon his eyes were drawn to the small boy. He was reaching up his tiny hands to his throat, rubbing it slowly and desperately, leaving reddish marks on the pale white skin. He started to breathe heavily, rolling foreword and off of the bed. He toppled to the ground, showing heavily scarred legs and back as if he had been attacked by something hungry with claws. He was clothed only in a pare of shorts that at one time may have been green. After laying there for a few minutes he turned over and crawled towards the bars.

Sirius watched in nervous fascination as the boy pulled himself up into an upright position. Apparently the boy hadn't moved in a while, or else the scars on his legs were more damaging then they looked.

Johnny turned his blank puppy eyes towards Sirius, one hand running over his throat again. In a small voice, cracked and weak with ill-use, he said. "Can you…keep talking?………Please?"

Sirius blinked. Apparently Johnny had kept a small fragment of his sanity in this place, as improbable as it may have seemed. Clearing his throat, Sirius began to talk to the young boy, telling him all about his exploits as a Marauder and everything he knew about everything in general.

X

As the months crawled by, Johnny and Sirius kept up a friendly relationship. Sirius did his best to teach the boy, who would never receive any sort of schooling at all, everything he could about magic and the world. Johnny became slightly more accustomed to talking, though he was unable to contribute much to conversations, and managed a few minor wandless magics. Nothing spectacular or life saving, but he did manage to conjure a Lumos for Sirius and a few cleaning spells. There were other miscellaneous things, but nothing fell into any real category.

It took a surprisingly long time for the Marauder to realize the boy he had befriended was blind. Completely. He said that he had been born that way, thus his blank stare. It didn't bother him at all as his parents had taught him a surprisingly simple spell that allowed him to look through the eyes of any animal he bonded to. He had originally been paired with an owl until it disappeared when his parents were killed. At the moment he a mouse that resided in his blankets, but only when he felt like it as their eyesight was rather pathetic.

On this particular day, around the time his tiny friend was to turn thirteen, Sirius was watching as Johnny pet his plain brown mouse (which he had named Lumos, as she allowed him to see through his darkness), stealing himself for the question that had burned within him for the four years of constant companionship they'd shared. "Um, Firefur?" he said, using the Marauder name he had given the boy after he had successfully managed a partial-Animagus form, a red fox. So far he could only get the ears, tail, fur and whiskers, but with a bit more practice he would be a perfect little fox boy.

"Yes Padfoot?" replied Johnny.

"I was just wondering……… about………about the night your parents…….when **_it_** happened."

Johnny was silent for a moment, before turning over as he and Lumos looked at him, which they technically were. "Well…….. You know the stories they tell, right?"

"Yes. But I'm sure they aren't true….. Right?"

Johnny shook his head. "Of course not, Padfoot." he smiled softly to assure his friend. "That night we were relaxing on the couch. Father was reading the newspaper and I was leaning against mother while she attempted to knit a scarf for my owl, Snow. I was watching through Snow, and she really wasn't very good at it. Anyways, father suddenly tensed, as did mother, and they shoved me into a closet. I was confused but simply watched through Snow, waiting silently to see what was wrong.

After a few minutes the door was blown in and ten men in auror clothes rushed in. I recognized them because they were always bothering my parents when we went to Diagon Alley together. They started saying stuff about how they wouldn't allow 'our kind' around their children any longer and how there was going to be three less pieces of filth in the world. They raised up their wands and my parents did everything they could to stay away from the lights that shot out-the spells I mean- and Father jumped on one of them with a creepy fake eye. Mother jumped too and they both started to scratch and bite him until one of the spells hit and Mother…… she stopped moving……. I could still see her breathing, even though Snow had started to swoop around and claw at the men's heads, so she was still alive at least…… But then Father yelled in rage, it was so scary, and started to attack the others. Someone hit Snow really hard and she was knocked across the room and couldn't fly anymore, so I watched from the floor as green light hit Father. When he fell he didn't breathe anymore…….." tears welled up in the boys eyes, and Sirius wished more than ever that he could hold the boy in his arms and comfort him.

"You don't have to keep going, Firefur…" whispered the older man. "If it's too painful……."

"No." said Johnny, shaking his head back and forth. "I have to tell it…. I never have….."

Sirius nodded, waiting patiently. After a moment Johnny pulled himself together and cradled Lumos to his chest.

"Some big dog thing came in after that…. It was brown and skinny like it didn't eat, with pointed ears and red eyes. It started to bite Mother over and over again while the Aurors laughed and cheered. I tried so hard to stay quiet like they told me but still couldn't help crying. One of the men did a spell on her and she started screaming and screaming until she stopped breathing too. The men told the dog thing to eat Snow and I saw it through her eyes. I still have nightmares about that………. Mother's blood was all over the house and they did a spell to find me. They found me in the closet and set the dog on me. It bit up my legs and scratched my back, but they called it off before I died. They put me in Azkaban and I never talked to anyone again but you."

Sirius watched as the boy openly cried, tears streaming down his face without a single noise issuing from his throat. He murmured to the boy in a comforting voice, reaching out his hand through the bars despite knowing he couldn't reach him. This boy had been through far too much in his life and Sirius was overcome with feelings to protect the boy, along with urges to decapitate everyone who ever had, did or would work for the Ministry of Magic.

X

It wasn't a week later that Sirius got his hands on The Article. The one that would change his horrible life forever. He ranted for hours about the piece of trash Wormtail, about how he would kill him, and exactly what he thought about his decision to betray Lily and Prongs. Johnny did what he could to console him, but even his lulling voice could bring him off his tirade.

Finally, in a last effort to return the man to himself, Johnny squeezed his eyes shut and shouted "I think I know how you can get back at him!"

Sirius froze mid-word, staring at the ashamed looking boy in shock. "You… what?"

"I……I've been thinking about it………for……..for a while now." he mumbled, bowing his head. "I-I would have said something sooner but I wasn't sure and………and I didn't want to get your hopes up."

"What is it Firefur?" asked Sirius, dropping to his knees so they were vaguely even. "Tell me! No matter how unlikely!"

"Well….. I've only really git four years life experience, so it may just be wishful thinking…… …but….. Well you know how the Dementors suck out your happiness and hope and stuff? How they destroy your will?"

Sirius suppressed a shiver. "Of course, Firefur."

"Well…… Lumos here has been here he whole life and not to mention her family……. There are lots of mice living here and the Dementors don't spare them a glance…. They're all perfectly happy and can leave anytime they want…."

Sirius cocked his head to the side, the rusted and rarely used gears in his brain finally starting to creak into action. "So the Azkaban guards…… Don't bother with the mice…….. Only the prisoners?"

"Uh-huh." mumbled Johnny. "Just a…. just a thought."

Sirius sighed, leaning back a bit. "Too bad my Animagus is a dog or else this'd be great to know."

"Well actually I thought it might not just be mice…….. Maybe other animals are unaffected to."

Sirius' eyes bugged. "That….. That's a great idea!" he hissed. "How did I not think of that! Johnny, you're an absolute genius, didja know that?"

Johnny blushed but didn't answer.

Sirius was practically doing flips in his excitement. "Perfect! Wonderful! Amazing!" he whirled around, beaming goofily at the boy in the cell opposite him. "I'll be on the way to see Moony and Little Harry in a matter of months, Firefur! This is too good for words!"

Johnny cocked his head to the side. "Matter of months? Sirius, you should leave now. Wormtail won't be in one place forever. Not to mention Harry will be easier to get to without having to surpass the wards in Hogwarts."

Sirius chuckled. "I can't leave you here Firefur. You're this close to finishing your Animagus transformation, I can't just ditch you."

"You're right, I'm very close. That's exactly it though. You leave now and I'll follow behind in a few weeks. Besides, you're on a mission. You don't need some blind little fox tagging along with you. You can find and castrate Wormtail, and next thing you know a poor defenseless fox shows up on your doorstop, begging for a blanket and bowl of kitty chow."

Sirius snorted, shaking his head. "I think I'd rather wait for you. If things go wrong on your end, you'd be a lot safer with a big black dog at your side."

"But foxes are good at hiding. Big-butt dogs would just get in the way."

This argument continued for days, all the while Johnny putting in his best effort to finish his transformation. He managed to work in the nose, paws and whiskers in only a few days, finally managing to convince the 12 year convict that the lifer would be practically right behind him.

A week after the idea was brought up, Sirius slipped(or to be more accurate, wriggled like a stuck worm) through the bars of his cage. Sending his friend a doggish smile, he nuzzled the boy's tiny outstretched palm with his nose before loping towards freedom.

X

Two weeks later Sirius padded down the road, silent as a shadow, his blue eyes watching his godson avidly, not wanting to miss a thing. He had been on Privet Drive for seven days already (thank Merlin for public transportation!) and had been watching the boy nonstop. The Muggles he lived with were positively horrible and he was more than amused when the preteen blew his the fat sow they called a woman into a balloon after all the horrible things she said about Prongs and Lily. Not only was it 'accidental' magic which he couldn't be blamed for, but it was a lesson the fat bitch most definitely deserved. If only the Ministry people who would soon be coming would let the pig remember the lesson. No doubt Harry would receive a bit of the respect that he so rightly deserved for living with the likes of **_them _**for so long.

Harry had stopped his furious stomping on the opposite side of the street. And Sirius just watched as he plopped himself down on top of his trunk, chuckling inwardly. After the boy had calmed down, Sirius started moving a bit closer for a better look. His paw accidentally crushed a twig as he moved, and suddenly Harry was up with his wand pointed towards him. In his surprise Sirius exclaimed "Stop Harry, it's just me!" but seeing as he was masquerading as a dog it only came out as a terrifying, guttural growl.

Harry's emerald eyes widened in fear and he stumbled backwards, tripping over his trunk. His wand hand went up in the air before a loud 'BANG!' rung through both of their ears. Cursing his own stupidity, Sirius backed away and into the shadows as the Knight Bus pulled up. He listened vaguely to the conversation between Harry and the conductor before, on a whim, he leapt into a luggage flap on the side of the bus, settling himself in for an extremely bumpy ride.

X

_**Yay! Chapter one of my 'I'm-bored-and-it's-1-o-clock-in-the-morning-so-I'm-gonna-write-for-no-reason-at-all' story! This is my best attempt at a non OC centric fic, which is why this will concentrate on Sirius for as long as I can manage to go without having to dig up my other books. Johnny will come up again around the time of the Goblet of Fire cuz I do NOT know where Sirius was during that!**_

_**Anyhoo, if anyone has a Harry slash story plot I could use I'd be really super grateful, seeing as I CAN'T SEEM TO DO ONE WITHOUT AN ORIGINAL MALE CHARACTER! Please help me! Gimme a plot! Harry with someone who isn't a Weasley, or a girl, or Sirius(Ew). Desperate writer here!**_

_**PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE review this and read the upcoming chapters! If I don't get reviews I give up, knowing that they aren't being read! (Hence my other two stories! Hint hint wink wink!)**_


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